A Look Inside The Yankee Universe (and around the world of baseball)

Hail to the Chiefs: Yankees Lean Left When It Comes to Championships

This afternoon, the remaining members of the Yankees 2009 World Series Championship team will have the honor of meeting President Barack Obama at the White House. For the core four Yankees (Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte), this will be the third sitting President with whom they have visited to celebrate a championship (Bill Clinton three times and George W. Bush once). However, the visit to Bush resulted from a victory during the Clinton administration. Over the last 50 years, the Yankees have thrived under Democrat administrations, but come up empty when a Republican was in the White House. The Yankees last championship under the GOP dates all the way back to 1958, when Dwight Eisenhower was the commander in chief. Since then, all nine of the Yankees World Series victories have come with a Democrat leading the nation. I never like to mix politics and sports, but perhaps that’s something to keep in mind the next time you enter a polling booth during a presidential election.

Yankees Record By Political Party

W

L

T

Pct

R

RA

AL

WS

Democrats

4426

3164

44

0.583

37531

30930

23

20

Republicans

5161

4136

49

0.555

45171

40354

17

7

Yankees Record By Administration

W

L

T

Pct

R

RA

AL

WS

Barack Obama

115

65

0

0.639

1011

820

1

1

Warren Harding

257

146

0

0.638

2227

1706

2

0

John Kennedy

309

176

1

0.637

2358

1839

3

2

Franklin Roosevelt

1156

677

17

0.631

10355

7705

7

6

Dwight Eisenhower

761

468

4

0.619

6140

4695

6

3

Herbery Hoover

375

240

4

0.610

4030

3157

1

1

Harry Truman

747

483

3

0.607

6279

4860

5

5

Jimmy Carter

392

255

0

0.606

3120

2567

2

2

George W. Bush

775

518

2

0.599

7048

5994

2

0

Calvin Coolidge

493

331

5

0.598

4522

3680

4

3

Bill Clinton

724

504

1

0.590

6738

5659

4

4

Gerald Ford

215

156

0

0.580

1644

1344

1

0

Ronald Reagan

677

562

0

0.546

5854

5345

1

0

Richard Nixon

468

444

2

0.513

3526

3419

0

0

William McKinley

60

59

2

0.504

67

69

0

0

Lyndon Johnson

401

406

6

0.497

3010

2945

1

0

Woodrow Wilson

582

598

16

0.493

4660

4535

0

0

Theodore Roosevelt

504

535

21

0.485

4876

5172

0

0

William Taft

288

318

9

0.475

2529

2709

0

0

George H.W. Bush

288

359

0

0.445

2708

3064

0

0

Presidential Performance

Best Winning Percentage: Barrack Obama (.639, from 2009-Present)

Worst Winning Percentage: George HW Bush (.445, from 1989-1992)

Most AL Pennants: Franklin Roosevelt (7, from 1933-1944)

Most World Series Victories: Franklin Roosevelt (6, from 1933-1944)

Best Season (By Win%): Calvin Coolidge (1927, 110-44)

Worst Season (By Win%): William Taft (1912, 50-102-1)

Best Run Differential: Franklin Roosevelt (1939, +2.70 runs/game)

Worst Run Differential: Theodore Roosevelt (1908, -1.63 runs/game)

Lyndon Johnson and Woodrow Wilson are the only two Democrats under whose administration the Yankees have not won a World Series. The Yankees have failed to win a championship under nine different Republican presidents.

There have been three presidential successions during a Yankees season: McKinley to Roosevelt in 1901; Harding to Coolidge in 1923; and Nixon to Ford in 1974.

Yankee pitchers have thrown eight no-hitters under a Democrat president and four no-hitters under a Republican.

Yankee batters have hit for eight cycles under a Democrat president and seven cycles under a Republican.

Of the Yankees five Cy Young award winners, three came under a Democrat president and two came under a Republican.

Of the Yankees 20 MVPs, 11 came under a Democrat president and nine came under a Republican.

It’s hard weighing the good of the nation against the good of the universe 🙂

The Rays are for real, but they have had a much easier schedule. They’ve played Baltimore 6 times! The Yankees, meanwhile, have only played 6 home games, and 9 of their 12 road games against Boston, TB and the Angels.

[…] to rely on other means of predicting the upcoming season. Back in April, we took a look at how the Yankees have performed under different presidential administrations, so in honor of the new year, this time we’ve broken down the team’s track record by […]

[…] of his pen, Reagan not only wiped out the Boss’ criminal record, but also made amends for the Yankees’ relative futility during his administration. Reagan returned to his roots as a Cubs’ broadcaster by joining Harry Caray behind the mic at […]